Harry Holland Annual Lecture

For this year annual lecture in memory of community giant, Harry Holland, we chose to look at O’Donovan Rossa and the impact his death and Pearse’s oration at his graveside had on the Easter Rising. “O’Donovan Rosa – Unrepentant Fenian” with Dr Shane was the subject of the night in the Felons club and our own Matt Lundy was chair.

Dr Shane Kenna holds a BA in History and Political Science, and an MA and PhD in Irish History from Trinity College Dublin. He has worked in several sites of historical and political importance including Kilmainham Gaol Museum and Archive, Dublin Castle, Government Buildings and Castletown House. Widely published, his works include War in the Shadows: the Irish-American Fenians Who Bombed Victorian Britain. This is the untold story of the Fenian Dynamite Campaign, the first modern urban bombing campaign in Western Europe along with the major biography of the executed 1916 Rising Leader Thomas MacDonagh as part of the 16 Lives series on behalf of the O’Brien Press.

Shane’s approach to the lecture was very welcome; his talk was interesting and engaging. Shane looked at O’Donovan’s early life during the great hunger, his time spent in jail, his time spent in America and apart of the Fenian movement along with his death and its subsequent impact on the Easter Rising along with Pearse’s oration at his graveside.